Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to methods and apparatuses for presenting virtual keyboards on a touch screen, and more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for presenting a virtual keyboard with some keys partially or fully extend beyond the screen, dynamically adapting a virtual keyboard to a particular typing habits of a user, and allowing a user to customize a keyboard layout including adding/deleting keys and changing key positions.
Background Information
A “virtual” or “soft” keyboard is a keyboard depicted on a touch screen and the keystrokes or hits are registered by a touch detecting function. It is not a hardware keyboard, which is located external to the touch screen.
Many modern hand-held computers, such as a tablet, have a touch screen and usually provide a virtual keyboard on the touch screen. Often the size and key arrangement of the virtual keyboard do not match the size of the writer's hands, for reasons such as the touch screen size is fixed and limited, and the sizes of palms and fingers are different from writer to writer. As touch screens become cheaper, touch screens capable of displaying a full size virtual keyboard similar to external standard keyboards become more and more popular. However, the full size virtual keyboard is still fixed in key arrangement, and fixed in size, shape, and relative distance between two keys. As such, it cannot match the hands of all writers. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to address the foregoing issues and thereby provide improved methods and apparatuses for presenting virtual keyboards in a touch screen device.